Minyan

This article is about the term in Judaism. For other meanings, see Minyan (disambiguation).

A minyan מנין (Hebrew: plural minyanim) in Judaism refers to a "quorum". In Judaism, certain religious obligations require a minyan to be present. In contemporary Judaism, the most common activity requiring a minyan is public prayer, for which the quorum is ten or more adult Jews. Accordingly, the term minyan in contemporary Judaism generally refers to a quorum of ten, and has also taken on the secondary meaning of referring to a prayer service.

Role of Women

Jewish denominations differ significantly with regard to the role of women in public religious activities prayer and hence whether they are included in the relevant quorums.

In Haredi Judaism, only men (age 13 and above) are counted as part of the quorum for all purposes on grounds that women are generally exempt from public religious obligations.

Some Modern Orthodox authorities permit women (age 12 and above) to count as part of a minyan for a small number of practices, although not for purposes of public prayer, on grounds of a more limited exemption for women that includes time-bound obligations, such as public prayer at specific required times.

Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, permits only women (generally age 13 and above but 12 and above in some congregations) who regard themselves as obligated to pray three times a day to count in a prayer minyan and presumes women regard themselves as so obligated unless otherwise indicated, an approach which creates a de facto egalitarianism in congregations wishing it while permitting traditionalist congregations and individual women to choose to retain traditional gender roles..

In Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, men and women are counted equally (age 13 and above for both) for all purposes, as a matter of egalitarianism, without regard to any issue of traditional obligations.

Origin

The word minyan comes from the Hebrew root moneh מונה meaning to count or to number (based on the requirement of 10 men to be in attendance [Mishnah Megillah 4:3]). The word is related to the Aramaic word mene, numbered, appearing in the writing on the wall in Daniel 5:25.

According to the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 23b), the requirement for a minyan of ten for purpose of communal prayer comes from the sin of the spies (Numbers 14:27), in which the ten spies who brought a negative report of the land of Israel. These are referred to as an eidah or congregation. However, the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 4,4) bases the requirement on Joseph's ten brothers who went down to Egypt to get food during a famine. The minyan of ten men is also referred to in Ruth 4:2.

A common misconception is that the requirement of ten to constitute a minyan comes from the fact that Abraham stopped decreasing his requests for God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah at ten "righteous" individuals (Genesis 18:32), but this view is not supported by any authorities.

The number ten for a minyan for purposes of communal prayer may not always have been consistent throughout history. In Masechet Soferim (10:7) it is stated that in the Land of Israel, sometimes as few as 6 (i.e., one more than half of 10) men were counted as sufficient to say communal prayers. This view has not been codified as halakha. However, there is a rule that if six men wish to conduct prayer services, they can bring four additional (non-praying) men into the room to complete the minyan.

Classical laws

According to Halakha (Jewish law) accepted by both Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, a minyan is required for many parts D'varim SheB'Kedusha ("Holy utterances") of the communal prayer service, including Barechu, Kaddish, repetition of the Amidah, the Priestly Blessing, and the Torah and Haftarah readings.

Orthodox Judaism

Rabbinic Judaism teaches that all men and women are obligated to pray to God each day, but the formal requirements for prayer are different for the sexes. Classical rabbinic authorities are in agreement that men are required to pray from a set liturgy three times a day; however, they were of varied opinions as to precisely what the requirements were for women.

It is commonly believed that Jewish law requires that men pray in a minyan, but this is not exactly correct according to most authorities. None of the Mishnah, Talmud or later codes of Jewish law hold this as requirement. Rather, it is described as a preferred activity, but not as mandatory. The Shulkhan Arukh (section Orach Chayim 90:9) says "A person should make every effort to attend services in a synagogue with a quorum; if circumstances prevent him from doing so, he should pray, wherever he is, at the same time that the synagogue service takes place". According to the author (Rabbi Yosef Karo), no Jew has an obligation to public prayer. That said, communal prayer, which requires a minyan, is historically viewed as an almost-obligation—while not a requirement, it is regarded as anti-social to not join in communal prayer.

Rashi and the Tosafot on Talmud Bavli Pesachim 46a are both of the opinion that one is required to travel the distance of 4 mil to pray with a minyan. The late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein followed this opinion.

Even according to those who hold that men have no halakhic obligation to pray in a minyan, it is strongly encouraged. According to Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah (Hilkhot Tefillah 8.1):

The prayer of the community is always heard; and even if there were sinners among them [i.e., the minyan], the Holy One, blessed be He, never rejects the prayer of the multitude. Hence a person must join himself with the community, and should not pray by himself so long as he is able to pray with the community. And a person should always go to the synagogue morning and evening, for his prayer is only heard at all times in the synagogue. And whoever has a synagogue in his city and does not pray there with the community is called a bad neighbor.

While the required quorum for most activities requiring a quorum is usually ten, it is not always so. For example, the Passover sacrifice or Korban Pesach (from the days of the Temple in Jerusalem) must be offered before a quorum of 30. (It must be performed in front of kahal adat yisrael, the assembly of the congregation of Israel. Ten are needed for the assembly, ten for the congregation, and ten for Israel.) According to some Talmudic authorities, women counted in the minyan for offering the Korban Pesach (e.g. Rav, Rav Kahana, Pesachim 79b).

Customs

Some congregations (based on the Shulkhan Arukh section Orach Chayim 55) will include a boy touching a Torah scroll or holding a printed Tanakh as the tenth person if a minyan can be formed in no other way. In other congregations, the tradition is to open the Aron Kodesh and permit the "Spirit of God" serve as the tenth person

Women and minyan in Orthodox Judaism

The traditional position in Orthodox Judaism is that only people obligated to perform a mitzvah can count in a minyan for purposes of that mitzvah. Men are obligated to perform public prayer three times a day with additional services on Jewish holidays. According to Jewish law, each prayer must be performed within specific time ranges, based on the time that the communal sacrifice the prayer is named after would have been performed in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Talmud women are generally exempted from obligations that have to be performed at a certain time. Orthodox authorities have generally interpreted this exemption as necessitated by women's family responsibilities which require them to be available at any time and make compliance with time-specific obligations difficult. In accordance with the general exemption from time-bound obligations, most Orthodox authorities have exempted women from performing time-bound prayer. Orthodox authorities have been careful to note that although women have been exempted from praying at specific fixed times, they are not exempted from the obligation of prayer itself. The 19th century posek Yechiel Michel Epstein, author of the Arukh HaShulkhan, notes: "Even though the rabbis set prayer at fixed times in fixed language, it was not their intention to issue a leniency and exempt women from this ritual act". Authorities have disagreed on the minimum amount that women's prayer should contain. Many Jews rely on the ruling of the (Ashkenazi) Rabbi Avraham Gombiner in his Magen Avraham commentary on the Shulkhan Arukh, and more recently the (Sephardi) Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yabiah Omer vol. 6, 17), that women are only required to pray once a day, in any form they choose, so long as the prayer contains praise of (brakhot), requests to (bakashot), and thanks of (hodot) God.

There are some practices in Orthodox Judaism that require a minyan and which, according to many authorities women are obligated to perform. According to many early Orthodox authorities women can count as part of the minyan of 10 required for these mitzvot. Theses cases include publicizing the miracle of Esther on Purim; public remembrance of Amalek in Parshat Zachor; public recitation of the Birkhat Hagomel blessing after surviving severe illness or danger; and public martyrdom, sanctification of G-d's name "in the midst of the children of Israel." (Leviticus 22:32). A few authorities also hold that because women are obligated to say the Grace after meals, 10 women can, at least under some circumstances, constitute a minyan for purposes of zimmun b'shem leading Birkat HaMazon.

In addition, not all Orthodox authorities agree that women are completely exempt from time-bound prayer. The Mishnah Berurah by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, an important code of Ashkenzic Jewish law, holds that the Men of the Great Assembly obligated women to say Shacharit (morning) and Minchah (afternoon) prayer services each day, "just like men". The Mishnah Berurah also states that although women are exempt from reciting the Shema Yisrael, they should nevertheless say it anyway. Nonetheless, even the most liberal Orthodox authorities hold that women cannot count in a minyan for purposes of public prayer.

US Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

Reform Judaism in the United States does not generally require a minyan for communal prayer.

In the mid 20th century some US Reform congregations began counting women as part of the minyan.

Currently, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis in the United States are committed to the equality of the sexes. They believe the past has a vote, but not a veto. Both movements have rejected the traditional practice of counting of only men in minyanim because it conflicts with core values.

Conservative Judaism

Until 1973, Conservative Judaism, which views halakha as its Rabbinate interprets it as binding, did not count women in a minyan for purposes of public prayer. In 1973, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly voted to permit synagogues to count women in a minyan if desired and approved by the local Rabbi. Although several responsa (opinions) were proposed at the time, the Committee did not adopt any of them, and did not offer any official reason for its decision. In 2002, the CJLS adopted a responsum offering the Conservative movement's halakhic reasons for this practice. . The Fine responsum indicated that the Conservative rabbinate found itself bound by the halakhic principle that only those obligated by a commandment can count towards a minyan to fulfill that commandment. Rabbi Fine reported that because of this principle, the Conservative movement found it could not simply declare that women counted without also requiring them to take on an obligation to pray at the same fixed times as men. It considered simply declaring all women obligated to pray three times a day, but found that such a declaration would turn its traditionalist female members into sinners. It considered requiring women to take on an individual personal vow to pray three times a day in order to count (the approach taken at the Jewish Theological Seminary for female rabbinic students), but found this impractical to implement in congregations. Its solution was to hold that Conservative women as a group had collectively obligated themselves to pray three times a day and thus women could count in the minyan on the basis of that collective obligation, while also holding that traditionalist congregations and individual traditionalist women could exempt themselves from that obligation..

Currently, a majority of Conservative synagogues count women in the minyan, although a traditionalist minority continues not to.

See also

• Jewish services
• Torah reading
• Amidah
• Kaddish
• Birkat HaMazon
• Megillah
• Partnership minyan

External links

• Minyan - Jewish Encyclopedia article.
• GoDaven.com Find an Orthodox Minyan anywhere in the world.
• What is a Minyan? on Ask Moses
• Template:PDFlink (OU.org)
• Minyan in the Jewish Knowledge Base on Chabad.org
• Frimer, A., Women and Minyan. Tradition 23:4, pp. 54-77 (1988) (Modern Orthodox view of women in minyan for various purposes)